A New Jersey businessman testified Friday at the New Jersey Democrat’s bribery trial that he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez and told jurors he gave the congressman’s wife a Mercedes in exchange for influence with the lawmaker.
Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty in March and is cooperating with prosecutors, was asked as a witness who he bribed. Uribe told jurors that he bribed Menendez and conspired with another businessman, Wael Hana. Uribe also said that the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes he paid. The senator, his wife and Hana have all pleaded not guilty. A third businessman, Fred Dives, has also pleaded not guilty.
Menendez and his wife are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes, some in the form of gold bars, in exchange for Menendez’s official services as a senator.
Prosecutors say Uribe, who testified that he bought the car for Nadine Menendez, sought the senator’s help in thwarting a criminal investigation of her associates by the New Jersey attorney general’s office. Bob Menendez called then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to discuss the matter, prosecutors said.
Grewal, who now heads enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, testified Thursday that the allegations that Menendez sought to discuss certain ongoing criminal cases “are unprecedented in my experience.”
Menendez has also been accused of accepting bribes to benefit the Egyptian government.
““The truth will come out next week,” Menendez said Friday as he left court.
A spokesman for Sen. Menendez declined to comment on court matters, and the senator’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Menendez is on trial alongside Hana and Dives. Nadine Menendez’s trial was postponed until at least July because of her recent treatment for breast cancer.
NBC News previously reported that Menendez could testify that his wife had concealed information.
At the opening of the trial in New York last month, Assistant District Attorney Lara Pomerantz argued before the 12 jurors and six alternates that the New Jersey Democrat had abused his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to “put greed first” and described senators as “powerful” and “corrupt.”
Pomerantz also previewed Uribe’s testimony at the start of the trial, saying he would give jurors an “inside look” at the scheme.
In his opening statement, Menendez’s lawyer, Ari Weitzman, said his client had not broken any laws.
“There will never be one concrete piece of evidence that a senator accepted a bribe. There is an exculpatory explanation for the money and the cash,” Weitzman said.
Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006. He stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee shortly after his indictment in September but has resisted calls to resign.
Menendez was indicted by federal authorities in 2015 on charges he illegally obtained favors from a Florida eye surgeon, charges he denies. The case ended in a mistrial after a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and prosecutors opted not to seek a new trial.
